Conservation

Our Mission

“Our mission is to consistently create truly authentic and exhilarating wildlife adventures that enrich your life experience, enhance the health, education and economic prospects of local communities, and conserve wildlife and their ecosystems.”

Ultimate Wildlife Adventures is focused on sustainable tourism and has a strong conservation ethos. We like to view ourselves as one of the good guys in the ongoing battle to protect wildlife from decimation and in some cases species extinction.

The Plight of Africa’s Wildlife

Many of Africa’s iconic and lesser known species face a perilous battle for survival in this time of human population growth and competition for land and space. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) paint a disturbing picture for the future. All of Africa’s iconic big cats, the lion, leopard, and cheetah are listed as vulnerable with population trends decreasing. The African wild dog is endangered with already low population numbers continuing to decrease. The great apes, the mountain gorilla and chimpanzee, are both listed as endangered, whilst the black rhinoceros is critically endangered. Elephants remain vulnerable and the white rhinoceros remains near threatened. Of the smaller guys the Cape pangolin, the world’s most trafficked animal, is vulnerable with an alarming reduction in numbers. The Grevy’s zebra, a sub-species of zebra, is recognised as endangered, as is the Ethiopian wolf and African penguin.

The Challenges

Astonishingly, the demise of these species’ populations has come in the last half century and coincides with industrial development which has seen an unprecedented growth in the human population and inevitably our needs for ever more resources. This necessity has led to conflict with animals through direct competition for land and water. Loss of available land renders animals requiring large distributions vulnerable to conflict as they venture outside protected areas. Human settlements and fences often impede migratory animals as they attempt to travel along historic migratory routes. This wildlife-human conflict is undoubtedly the biggest threat facing wildlife today. Whether conflict arises from human’s poaching wild animals for food or to illegally traffic on the black market, predators killing livestock or herbivores eating crops, or animals such as the wild dog catching diseases from domesticated dogs, it is undoubtedly wildlife who suffers as a result of this conflict.

The Solutions

Research overwhelmingly suggests the key to successful wildlife conservation is to develop local bespoke strategies to integrate wildlife, land, and local human populations for the benefit of all concerned. Many organisations believe the key is to actively include local people in conservation so they are able to feel tangible benefits from sharing land with wild animals. Only when humans see the value of conservation as a long-term economic benefit can they treat wildlife as assets and allies rather than enemies and consumables. There have been many heart-warming success stories where these ideas have worked to the benefit of all. The classic example being the Laikipia Plateau in Northern Kenya. Charities, local tour operators, and local communities worked together to develop private game reserves on the land of cattle farmers. Local people are heavily involved in the project whether through employment as guides or staff at the various lodges or by claiming a rent from the land they voluntarily passed over. The land is protected, cattle continues to graze allowing communities to preserve their cultural identity, and wildlife numbers and diversity prosper in contrast to most of the continent.

The Role of Tour Operators

How can tour operators like Ultimate Wildlife Adventures help in wildlife conservation? Tour operators, alongside conservationists, environmentalists, and charities are seen as part of a team of organisations who bring about influence, drive change, and prevent potentially negative developments. Wildlife tourism now spans the entire globe and provides billions of dollars of revenue, while also providing an economic incentive for wildlife and habitat conservation and cultural preservation. Responsible tourism has been shown to provide a major long-term and sustainable source of jobs and income for local people, a proven incentive for their positive involvement in conservation projects. Government’s also benefit as a result of tax receipts and through gate entrance fees in national parks. These financial benefits incentivise local people and governments to provide an active role in the protection of their assets, wildlife. Therefore, our responsibility is to ensure we are operating in a responsible manner ourselves and only associating ourselves with those who share our values. We therefore only work with overseas partners who we deem to be fellow good guys due to their shared interest in conservation.

We pledge to only work with companies who employ local people throughout all tiers of their business from management to guides and trackers to support staff.

We prefer to work with local overseas operators who have developed their own local conservation programme to aid local communities and wildlife.

We only visit destinations and use accommodations who have a conservation ethos.

We put aside a proportion of our profits from each booking and donate them to one of our carefully chosen conservation partners. We ensure you are credited with this donation as without you there is no us.

The Role of Tourists

How can tourists like you help in conserving wildlife for the moral good and for future generations to enjoy? The easy answer for you is to do your research and only book with a reputable company who puts conservation and ethics above profit and prosperity. If you do this then you can guarantee your presence in a destination ensures wildlife conservation is financially viable. Revenue from your trip will go towards community projects, financing anti-poaching projects, health and education for local people, as well as necessary wildlife veterinary needs and research projects, amongst many other things.

Success Stories

The aforementioned challenges remain pertinent but amongst all the reported gloom there are some success stories. Mountain gorilla populations have grown by an astounding 25% in the last few years. As a consequence the IUCN has downgraded their risk from critically endangered to endangered. Rhinoceros horn is a huge commodity in the Far East and there continues to be a huge appetite. However, thanks to local conservation efforts the population trend for both the black rhinoceros and white rhinoceros are on the increase. The black rhinoceros population has more than doubled from 2400 in 1995 to between 5000 and 5400 today. Even more astonishing is the recovery of the white rhinoceros from only 20-50 individuals to an estimated mean of 20,000 animals today.

As previously alluded to, we ourselves are financial supporters of several handpicked not-for-profit organisations who work tirelessly to support conservation projects close to our heart. By clicking on each logo you can read more about the fabulous work each one does across Africa and around the world.

Explore our Sample Itineraries

Book a safari with us to leave your own conservation legacy on Africa and its wildlife.